Trenton man is convicted of setting blaze that killed his brother in dispute over bills

TRENTON — Tormu Prall was found guilty yesterday of setting fire to the home where he and his brother lived in 2007, killing his brother and badly injuring the woman who was sleeping beside him.

After deliberating for just a few hours, the jury found Prall, 49, guilty of murder, felony murder, attempted murder and aggravated arson charges for setting the fire that engulfed the home on the 200 block of Wayne Avenue.

Prall, who could face decades in prison, sat calmly beside his attorney, speaking to him softly as the judge confirmed the jury’s verdict. Prall is already serving another sentence for an unrelated offense.

Prall’s sister and friends the brother who died, John Prall, broke into tears as the jury read the verdict yesterday afternoon.

“This case is just a tragedy for everyone,” said Assistant Prosecutor Lew Korngut, who tried the case with Assistant Prosecutor Renee Robeson.

Prosecutors said Tormu Prall sprayed a flammable liquid around the windows and door of his brother’s bedroom as his brother slept and set it alight before fleeing. Prall remained a fugitive for nearly a year until he was taken into custody in Connecticut in 2008.

The brothers had a series of heated arguments over household expenses witnessed by several friends in the weeks leading up to the fire, prosecutors said. They said Prall was told by his brother that he could not live in the house if he did not contribute to the bills.

During the trial the woman who was injured, Kimberly Meadows, described waking up with her legs on fire and finding John Prall, who was sleeping next to her, on fire from the waist up. He died four days later at Temple University Hospital’s burn center in Philadelphia, and she was hospitalized for more than two months. The mother of John Prall’s children also testified in court.

Tormu Prall’s attorney Michael Dawson said his client is already considering an appeal of the conviction.

“There have been a bunch of issues to ask for an appeal,” Dawson said.

Dawson said he was happy at how attentive the jury was but disappointed in the verdict.

“The evidence was not there,” Dawson said.

Dawson argued that the jury could not say beyond a reasonable doubt that it was Prall who set the fire because there was no physical evidence that he lit the blaze and no one saw him at the scene setting the fire.

The prosecutors thanked the Trenton police and the detectives who have worked on the case since 2007 as well as the witnesses who agreed to testify.